


An Illusionist's Holiday

by rocketgills



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-26
Updated: 2011-12-26
Packaged: 2017-10-28 04:01:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/303511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rocketgills/pseuds/rocketgills
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which the team just can’t get a break from being attacked or taught some serious lessons, even on the holidays.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Illusionist's Holiday

**Author's Note:**

> First thing I’ve ever done in this fandom. This was for the Young Justice Secret Santa (jingle-junior-justice.tumblr.com) and done for chaoticdream at tumblr. Enjoy!

The clock had just struck midnight when Zatanna rolled over on her bed, only to hear Miss Martian’s voice in her head.

“Hello?” she questioned as she wasn’t too used to the mind link that the team used.

“Hi Zatanna!”

Megan’s voice washed over her mind for a moment, “What’s the problem, Miss Martian?”

“Duh! Merry Christmas!”

Zatanna laughed at her friend’s antics, “Merry Christmas to you too!” she thought back, as she wondered where exactly she was that she could still use her mindlink with seemingly no problems.

The young illusionist blinked as she realized something, “Hey! This is your first Christmas here, isn’t it?

“Yeah, it’s _great_! I’ve seen so much, like Christmas trees and all the stuff about a baby…? I get to bake a lot for the team too. I can’t wait for our party tomorrow when it’s _actually_ Christmas. Well, later today. I bet you’ll love your gift!” She took a mental breath, “I think this is seriously my favorite Earth holiday!”

Zatanna mentally gasped, “There is _so_ much more.”

She got off her bed and ran to her desk flipping through the pages of a journal as an idea hit her.

“Hey, can you open the mind link between the whole team right now?”

“Um, sure…but why? Is something wrong?”

“No, no. Just trust me!”

There was silence on Megan’s end, and suddenly she felt her awareness expanding to allow five other minds to brush hers.

“Merry Christmas!” Zatanna yelled mischievously, hoping to startle the heroes.

“Huh?”

“Why’s the mindlink open?”

“Is something wrong?”

“Z-zatanna?!”

“Oh, calm down guys!”

Zatanna laughed before explaining, “Guys, this is little Miss Martian’s first Christmas! Oh, Superboy’s too! I thought you’d want to give them something more special than some shiny boxes and dinner.”

Silence raced across the link as Zatanna continued, “So I found a spell…” Zatanna grinned, as she could literally feel their eyes going wide at the proclamation, “You see, I’m an illusionist. Tricks of the hand and all that on stage. But I can also create illusions and do some fancy stuff with memories.”

“Um…You’re not going to perform a spell on our _minds_ are you?”

Zatanna frowned at Robin’s question, “No…just expanding the senses over this mind link…Hey, why do you all seem so nervous?”

No one answered.

“I was just going to perform a spell that expands the senses so we can share images and show Miss Martian here what other Christmases are like…since I’m going to go ahead and assume that she’d have to actually poke into our heads to do something like that…”

Slightly off laughter from Wally, “That sounds like fun. Let’s go. I think Robin should go first, he’s sure to have the best Christmas experiences with Batman.”

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“Oh nothing my young Boy Wonder.”

 

“Boys! No fighting over the mind link!”

Zatanna almost laughed at how easily they listened to Megan.

“No complaints then?” A resounding no, “Well then, let’s get this thing started.”

She closed her eyes, holding one hand to her head and one over her eyes before spreading them outward and then bringing them in a wide sweep upward.

 

“Dnim eht nepo dna sesnes eht dnapxe. Ytivitaerc htrof gnirb!”

There was a gasp of outright wonder from Megan.

“Woah,” Conner stated.

“Understatement of the century. Can’t anyone just make statements?” Robin said softly.

It was rather impressive though. Every thought created bursts of color or waves of light and Megan was the first to try to make an actual image. Suddenly they could all see the surface of her home planet. It was like they were standing on it, except they couldn’t really feel anything too clearly.

“All magic requires intent, so the caster has to be completely focused for anything to work right. This spell works off the imagination of all involved, so the stronger your imagination, the stronger the image. But don’t worry, nothing can really hurt you, it’s kind of like playing a video game.”

They could literally see each other’s excitement over sending images when suddenly pain spiked through the mind link. Zatanna fell to the ground as her head pounded and her eyes watered. Suddenly there was a chorus of ‘What was that?!’ before Megan screamed, “Something happened to Robin!”

There was one bright burst of images from Robin’s corner of the mind link before it went blank.

The young heroes saw a blurry image of a man in something blue before the image also disappeared.

“Zatanna, how long can you keep up this spell?”

Aqualad had been rather quiet until then, “A long time, since it’s not just working off of me.”

“We have to move fast, he’s being moved closer and closer to the edge of my range..”

 

There was a spark of worry and a larger spark of irritation from Conner’s corner. Superboy was much easier to understand when he was projecting like that, and she did _not_ want to be the one who did that to Robin when they found him or her.

Zatanna frowned to herself, “Well, let’s hurry up and save him, then!”

Robin was quickly becoming a friend to her, and she did not want to see him harmed. She actually looked up to him because he always seemed so strong.

But she couldn’t afford to let friendship get in the way of rescuing him.

They immediately placed themselves in a mission mindset. They tried to ignore the fact that it was _Robin_ they were trying to locate – that they were going to destroy whoever had the _nerve_ to attack their boy wonder, and worked as if it was any other rescue mission.

Miss Martian made wider and wider sweeps, searching Robin out using the mind link until she could feel a weak signal from his unconscious mind. From there, Aqualad and Kid flash were able to scope out the area for suspicious behavior as they came upon a deserted building.

“Really? Here?” Artemis questioned lowly, “This feels like a bad movie.”

“Focus,” Kaldur stated, though he understood Artemis was just nervous and well, angry. Even he would just prefer to barge in and take their teammate completely by force, but they couldn’t that would be dangerous, stupid, and certainly Superboy would find it satisfying, but… “We have to make sure we can get Robin out before anything else.”

Sparks of red came from all corners of the mind link just before Megan showed everyone images of the entire mall, and a route down into the basement, and finally, where Robin was being held.

They created a quick plan via mind link and Zatanna’s spell, and began their infiltration, wary of anyone who’d actually managed to capture Robin in the first place.

There was no choice but to go straight in, since there was only one way to where Robin was on foot. Miss Martian was able go in invisibly, and Kid Flash went ahead in order to distract from Robin’s rescue. Artemis and Kaldur were to wait outside in case anything went wrong, and Superboy and Zatanna would ensure their safe exit from the premises.

“This place…seems pretty empty,” Conner said.

“Yeah…and that’s very suspicious,” Zatanna stated before whirling around towards a wall.

Conner tensed before Zatanna explained her behavior, “I…I thought I saw something.” He scowled and looked around the long hall leading to the dead end Robin was being held in, and the stairs leading to the entrance.

The walls, floor, and ceiling of the hall were all painted a dull grey, and the paint was chipping and water damage was evident everywhere. The light flickered ominously as Zatanna tapped it, thinking she’d been seeing things before.

There was a loud crash as Conner punched the wall, looking rather surprised.

Zatanna looked back, “Did you see it too?!”

He nodded. They both stood back to back, each looking down a long dim hall for a long moment before they heard a loud ringing in their ears, “Wha—“

And they both fell unconscious.

Zatanna felt a sharp movement against her back as she heard a voice – it was Kaldur. How did he even get caught? She looked up to see a tall figure wearing a blue robe much like one would see in children’s fairy tales. It dragged against the floor as he moved gracefully towards them, his hood obscuring his face as shoulder length black hair peeked out from within.

 

“Who are you?” Kaldur questioned softly.

“Me? I am many things. You may call me Death. Life. The Ghost of Christmas Past.” The robed figure paused, “A caring parent?”

He ran a hand over Robin’s hair before moving over to Zatanna and wiping some dust off of her shoulder.

She scowled up at him, unable to see his face.

“Ah ah. Don’t give me that look my dear. We both know you treasure that outfit.”

She narrowed her eyes before murmuring, “Tel mih eb nees. Tel sih werop retihw.” An immense force gathered around Zatanna and narrowed to a needle point directed at the mysterious figure before he swept his hand outward, completely dispersing it as if it never existed. Zatanna gasped at the loss, now looking at the man with wide eyes.

“Impossible, you can’t just banish magic, it’s _energy_.” She stated incredulously, “What are you?” she whispered.

“Don’t give me that look either!” He sang, as he moved to lean against the wall of the room, “We’re all mad here.”

Kaldur looked around, Robin and Megan were awake, but the rest of the team was still unconscious. What could he do to save them in such a grave situation? He couldn’t move, he didn’t have a way to fight this man, and it seemed he had powers beyond their imaginations.

Oh, that’s right. Imagination.

“Zatanna. Can this spell be used for anything else?” he questioned, as he flashed over images of their combined thoughts and imaginations becoming reality.

“Yes? No…I’ve never tried anything like that before. But…my magic depends on intent. It wouldn’t hurt to try.”

Neither of them noticed the glee radiating off of their kidnapper as they exchanged thoughts.

“It’s quite rude to talk like that when there are others are in the room,” He sat as the other members began to awaken, “Did you know that I’ve been watching you? All of you really. For the longest time. I know all of you, and I can see that you’re going to need each other more than ever in the future. And you’re going to need to learn how to work together. Well you are working together, but you aren’t quite understanding each other yet.”

Suddenly Zatanna was plucking the thoughts and ideas lingering in the mind link and honing them into a sharp weapon. Her specialty was illusions – remodeling reality, and pushing thoughts into the world they saw and making things happen was exactly that. Intent was most definitely not an issue. At that moment they all wanted the same thing: To beat the crap out of this cloaked asshole, drop him in prison, and _go home_. There was a wave of energy and their bindings broke as Zatanna rose into the air. Another wave of energy had the cloaked figure surrounded and the young heroes a split second away from attacking him, and another wave and Zatanna was about to throw all of their well-intentioned hostility at him when suddenly the magic once again was repelled and expelled and she found herself back where she started.

Not in the damp basement, or the dim hallway, or the streets of the city, or even at her bedroom window.

She was on her bed in her room.

A cacophony of voices rang out in her head, all questioning the same thing.

What the hell just happened?

She blinked slowly, as there was a note floating above her, and there was no doubt it was done by magic.

‘What better way to spend the holidays than reaffirming your relationship with your friends? It seems you all do share a special bond. Happy Christmas. P.S. Do not worry yourselves over me. I’m no villain. Merely a weak old magician trying to set some kids on their feet.’

 


End file.
